1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to consumer electronic devices such as televisions, video cassette recorders, optical disk players and the like, and more particularly to consumer electronic devices including remote control units for remotely controlling the operations of the electronic devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many consumer electronic devices (e.g., televisions, video cassette recorders, optical disk players, etc.) are available with handheld infrared (IR) remote control units. Such remote control units typically include IR transmitters for sending coded IR signals to the electronic devices. The IR signals are received by IR receivers within the electronic devices, and the decoded IR signals are used to control the operations of the electronic devices. Remote control units allow a user to conveniently control the operations of an electronic device from virtually any location within the room in which the electronic device resides.
One problem that arises is that each electronic device typically requires a different remote control unit. Thus a user having several different electronic devices typically has a corresponding number of remote control units, each of which controls only one of the electronic devices. Compounding this problem is the fact that remote control units are often very similar in appearance. The user must remember to use the right remote control unit to control a given electronic device, and experiences frustration when he or she attempts to use the wrong remote control unit by mistake.
A typical remote control unit is a simple device including a keypad in addition to the IR transmitter. The keypad typically has several electronic switches or "keys", many of which are assigned a specific function. For example, a typical remote control for a television (TV) includes separate keys which toggle electrical power to the TV, change the channel to a higher number, change the channel to a lower number, turn the sound volume up, and turn the sound volume down. A typical remote control unit for a video cassette recorder (VCR) includes separate keys which toggle electrical power to the VCR, activates replay of a cassette tape within a cassette receiver, stops replay of a cassette tape within the receiver, and rewinds a cassette tape within the receiver.
Many video devices such as TVs, VCRs, and digital versatile disk (DVD) players allow configuration via on-screen programming using the corresponding remote control device. The user configures the video device by selecting an option from a list of options or "menu" displayed upon the TV screen. Such on-screen programming allows a user to properly configure a complex video device by simply pressing keys on the keypad of a remote control device.
Many different types of portable computing devices, including laptop computers, notebook computers, sub-notebook computers, hand-held computers, palmtop computers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs), are now widely available. Most sub-notebook and smaller computers include an IR transceiver port, as do many laptop and notebook computers. IR transceiver ports allows wireless communication with other devices configured for IR communication (e.g., other portable computers, desktop computers, printers, etc.).
Software configuration and control of the IR transceiver ports allows many different IR signal coding methods and transmission protocols to be supported. Thus a portable computing device with an IR transceiver port is most likely capable of sending the coded IR signals used by consumer electronics devices. In addition, most laptop computers and PDAs also include a display device capable of displaying menus which could be used to configure consumer electronics devices. It would thus be desirable to have an apparatus and method for configuring and controlling multiple consumer electronics devices using a portable computing device having an IR tansceiver port. Such an apparatus and method would allow a user owning a portable computing device having an IR transceiver port to configure and control multiple consumer electronic devices using the portable computing device.